Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of communication networks, and, more particularly, to network security configuration using short-range wireless communication.
In communication networks, a secure association between devices in a communication network can be accomplished using a push button configuration and/or a user configured passphrase/key, etc. In the push button configuration, a user can push a button on each of the devices within a certain time and the devices can associate with each other. In the user configured passphrase/key technique, the user can enter an ASCII encoded passphrase with specified rules which can either be converted to a communication network key or directly configured as the network key. However, it is cumbersome to enter the user configured passphrase/key manually into multiple network devices. Also, the user configured passphrases are susceptible to dictionary attacks and network keys are often too complex to configure manually. The push button configuration is not very secure, and with physical access to a device in the network, the push button can be triggered to associate a device under control of malicious users to associate with the devices in the network and thereby obtain security settings associated with the network.